(Kansas City, Mo.) -- The UMKC Men's Tennis
team (0-5) will open up Summit League play on Saturday when it heads to
Indianapolis, Ind. to take on IUPUI (4-10).
The match between the Kangaroos and the Jaguars is slated for a 2 p.m.
start at the West Indy Racquet Club.

THE OPPONENT

The Jags enter the week with a 4-10 overall record, but three of
those losses have come against ranked teams.
IUPUI has received solid production from the middle of its lineup as of
late evidenced by Deon Shafer and Ivan Mojsejev capturing the past two Summit
League Player of the Week honors.

LAST TIME OUT

The UMKC men's tennis team dropped a closely contested 4-3 contest
on Feb. 9, 4-3, to Missouri Valley foe Creighton at the Hanscom Indoor Tennis
Center in Omaha, Neb. The two squads
opened the day with doubles play with the Blue Jays taking all three matches to
earn the doubles point. In singles
action, sophomore Cameron Schoenhofer got the 'Roos started when he evened the
match at one point apiece with a 6-1, 7-5 win at No. 4. The Blue Jays, though, won the next two
matches in straight sets, leaving Creighton just one victory shy of the four
points needed for the win.

Freshman Conner Edwards
picked up his second win of the season with a come-from-behind 3-6, 7-5, 6-4
win over Gabe Nagy at No. 5 and Fleming registered his team-leading third win
of the season with a 7-6, 5-7, 10-7 win in his first match of the season at No.
1.

FLEMING NAMED SUMMIT LEAGUE PLAYER OF THE WEEK

Grant Fleming claimed the first Summit League Player of the Week
honor of the season and the first of his career after the match with Oklahoma
State. Against the Cowboys, the Overland
Park, Kan., native rallied for a 3-6, 6-1, 7-6 victory over OSU's Rifat
Biktyakov. The victory marked UMKC's
first point victory over a BCS opponent since 2008.

LAST SEASON

In 2011, the UMKC men's tennis team claimed its second consecutive
Summit League regular season title and its second Summit League Tournament
title and trip to the NCAA tournament in the last three seasons after finishing
16-7 overall and 6-0 in league play.
Individually, Nino Hasandedic was named Summit League Player of the Year
and Newcomer of the Year and Head Coach Kendell Hale was named Coach of the
Year, while Hasandedic, Grant Fleming, Gustavo Guerin, Serge Ristivojevic and Cameron
Schoenhofer were named to the all-League Team.

2012 SUMMIT LEAGUE PRESEASON POLL

The UMKC men's tennis team was picked to repeat as Summit League
Champions, in a poll by the league's head coaches. The 'Roos are coming off consecutive
undefeated regular season titles and are the defending tournament champions for
the second time in the past three years.

HEAD COACH KENDELL HALE

Kendell Hale is entering his fifth season as the head coach of the
UMKC men's and women's tennis program.
Overall, the 2011-12 season will be Hale's 18th as a collegiate head
coach, where he has compiled a 317-214 overall record.

Hale has guided both the
men's and women's squads to school-record win totals and has produced two
Summit League regular season title, two Summit League Tournament crown and two
NCAA Tournament appearance. He was also
selected at the 2009 USPTA Missouri Valley College Coach of the Year.

In four seasons at the
helm, Hale has coached 13 first team all-league selections and a pair of second
team all-league honorees on the men's side and seven all-league selections
(four first/two second) on the women's side.
He's also coached two Summit League Player of the Year and two Summit
League Newcomer of the Year.